Mayor of Accra calls for collaboration to address issues posing risks to road users

The (AMA), Mohammed Adjei Sowah has called for closer collaboration between the Police and other stakeholders in the road safety sector to help address the risks that confront road users.

According to him, these issues if properly addressed would help deal with concerns about safety on our roads and reduce road traffic collisions as well as serious injuries in the city and the country to the barest minimum.

The AMA Chief Executive made this call on Wednesday when he hosted a virtual meeting with members of the Accra Road Safety Council to brainstorm on finding solutions to challenging road safety matters in the city of Accra and beyond.

Key among these hazards he said, include aggressive street hawking and begging, illegal structures on roads and pedestrian walkways, signboards at junctions, vehicle repairs on roads and pedestrian walkways, Building materials on roads and pedestrian pavements and Damaged road furniture.

The council is a 13-member Road Safety Management Team mandated to help minimise road traffic deaths and injuries in the city.

The Council, chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mohammed Adjei Sowah and supported by the City Advisor on Climate Resilience and Sustainability, Desmond Appiah. Other Members include representatives from the Ministry of Transport, National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Ministry of Roads and Highways, Department of Urban Roads, (DUR) Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), Ghana Police Service, Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the AMA Transport and Planning Departments.

The Mayor, used the meeting to also charge road safety stakeholder organizations to champion the cause of making the issues of road safety a public health crisis in the country adding that this would help in addressing road safety issues, which claims innocent lives and disables several others.

He stated that road crash fatalities claimed 2,589 lives in 2020 while Covid-19 claimed 752 lives. This data shows that fatalities occurring from road crashes in the country far outweigh cOVID-19 deaths and must be addressed with utmost seriousness and maximum resources.

In a presentation, the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) Coordinator for Ghana, Osei Kufuor, pointed out that; governance and ownership of road safety, legal framework for road safety, road design and land use planning, motorcyclist non-compliance of traffic rules, driver testing/ licensing/ behaviour, post-crash emergency response and care are critical issues that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency for the full realization of a crash-free Accra and nation at large.

The Director of Planning at the National Road Safety Authority, David Adonteng, indicated that the issues of road safety need political champions who would play an instrumental role in making the issues of road safety a priority for the government.

This meeting is held at the end of every quarter to harness the collaborative efforts of these stakeholders to effectively deal with challenging road safety issues.